Régis Le Bris instruction prompts funny three-word response from Sunderland man ahead of Cardiff City

Aji Alese provided a good-humoured three-word answer when asked about Régis Le Bris’ instructions ahead of the Championship season.

The former West Ham man started in the heart of Sunderland’s defence as Le Bris’ side drew 2-2 with Marseille at Valley Parade last Saturday during the first team’s last pre-season fixture of the summer programme.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Alese was asked about Le Bris’ new attack-minded style and what the French head coach’s instructions had been to Sunderland’s defence amid talk of the team’s fresh front-foot approach. With a good-humoured smile on his face, Alese responded: “Don't concede goals!”

When asked to elaborate, Alese added: “Obviously we want clean sheets but we also want good defensive shape, we have a certain way of how we press when they're playing out from the back, we have a certain shape we have when there's a low block, leading the team from behind and just the importance of keeping clean sheets, because if you keep a clean sheet that's the foundation to win a game.”

The 23-year-old has broken into Le Bris’ team during pre-season after an injury to usual first-choice centre-half Dan Ballard.

“That's what a squad is for,” Alese said when asked about the injury to his teammate. “There's 20-plus of us so when someone is injured there's someone to come in.”

Sunderland faced South Shields and Gateshead during their early pre-season campaign before playing Nottingham Forest and CD Eldense in Spain. The Black Cats have since faced Blackpool, Bradford City and Marseille since their return from Europe.

On the game against Marseille, Alese added: “It was the last pre-season game so we wanted to get as much out of it as we could. We scored two goals, obviously, and we conceded a couple so we'll look back on that and figure it out but against good opposition it was a good workout and a good result.

“We always want to challenge ourselves, like playing Forest earlier this summer, good opposition where we can test ourselves against players playing in a league above ours. That's what we've been working towards, we've got through pre-season now so all eyes are on Cardiff.

“Having a week between games in the summer to get recovered and get back on the pitch and get messages in is massively helpful,” Alese added. “Like last season when Mick Beale came in, he had to implement his ways and get wins. Now the gaffer has the chance to implement his ways and the last five or six games haven't meant anything. So we have an understanding of how he wants us to play and we'll take that into next week.”

Sunderland begin their Championship campaign against Cardiff City in Wales on Saturday under new head coach Le Bris with Alese expected to partner O’Nien in the centre of defence once again amid Ballard’s ongoing injury issue.

Last March, Alese signed a new deal at Sunderland to remain at the club until the end of the 2026-27 season.